Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Divinity (MDiv)
First Reader
Dr. Tisa Wenger
Second Reader
Dr. Todne Thomas
Abstract
The history of Berkeley Divinity School, the Episcopal seminary at Yale, traverses centuries and thousands of miles between Ireland, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Abundant institutional narratives concerning Berkeley Divinity School’s origin and development over time rehearse a mythology connecting the Anglo-Irish philosopher and bishop George Berkeley (1685–1753) and the establishment of Berkeley Divinity School in 1854 by Massachusetts-born professor and bishop John Williams (1817–1899). This thesis intervenes in the historiography of Berkeley Divinity School by situating John Williams’s allusion to George Berkeley’s unfulfilled dream to establish a college training Anglican missionaries on the island of Bermuda within a British imperial agenda that required the elimination of indigenous culture and the generational enslavement of Africans. Through analysis of pamphlets, ephemera, and heraldry from the Berkeley Divinity School archives, the project identifies moments where history is made by the ones who remember, illuminating the ongoing operation of the myth in communal practices. Ultimately, it re-members the legacy of George Berkeley, John Williams, and Berkeley Divinity School in the hopes that a new kind of institutional history will take root and grow.
Copyright
© Alden Emery Jackson Fossett
Recommended Citation
Fossett, Alden, "The Course of Empire Causes Us Much Grief: Imperialism, Slavery, and Genocide in the Theological Education of Berkeley Divinity School, the Episcopal Seminary at Yale" (2026). Yale Divinity School Theses. 28.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/divinity_theses/28